By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - He became the face of post-Sept. 11 illness after his death in early 2006, galvanizing lawmakers and health care advocates to lobby for research and treatment for thousands who said the debris-filled air at ground zero made them sick.

James Zadroga, the 34-year-old retired police detective who died of respiratory failure after working hundreds of hours at the World Trade Center site, was often cited by those advocates as a “sentinel case” — the first health-related casualty linked to ground zero, suggesting there would be more to follow.

The city’s medical examiner stunned that community this week in a letter declaring that Zadroga’s death had nothing to do with the toxic air he breathed while working at ground zero